Today in Missouri Governor Jay Nixon proposed a tax on hospitals to help fund coverage for the uninsured. Under the proposal, the parents in a family of four who earn 50 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $11,025, would be eligible for coverage. The state's current plan calls for coverage for parents who make 20 percent of the federal poverty level, or $4,410 a year:
Hospitals pay a 5.25 percent tax that helps the state draw more federal funds. That rate is expected to go to 5.4 percent next year. Missouri's 152 hospitals would contribute $52.5 million, allowing the state to receive $93 million in federal matching funds.
While Nixon portrayed his plan as new, it actually had only one new feature: Hospitals would chip in $15.5 million more than they had proposed in Nixon's January budget.
In other words, the Missouri Hospital Association had already agreed to put $37 million toward coverage for low-income parents. The money comes from state and federal funds that hospitals receive for caring for the uninsured.
Hospitals "are going to be better off" because people with insurance could get preventive care, said Nixon's budget director, Linda Luebbering. "They're not going to show up in the emergency rooms uninsured."
We have supported a four percent fee on hospitals in California to help ensure greater coverage and increase federal matching funds for Medi-Cal. The issue, from our perspective, is bringing the cost of health care into the realm of the realistic so that more people have the coverage they need. For meaningful health care reform to be implemented we're all going to have to give a little.
Comments